In the past two weeks Sweden’s Elitserie Championship was decided when Stefan Anderson’s Piraterna from Motala were crowned as the best team in Sweden last Wednesday night. Also the Polish Ekstraliga have held their play off rounds, and especially by the Vistula River when some of the riders from the prestigious Speedway European Championship took part. On Sunday 15th Semptember in Torun, the Unibax team entertained Zielona Gora at the Moto Arena.
Riding in the colours of Unibax Torun was the current SEC third placed rider, Polish number 1 Tomasz Gollob. Thanks to a good home performance the hosts came away with a slender three point lead to take to the second leg, and the title as favourites now lay with Falubaz Zielona Gora, before their home leg. Gollob scored 15 points in 6 starts, and teamed up in the final race with Darcy Ward for an incredible victory.
In Tarnow the battle for bronze medals began badly for the visitors from Czestochowa as their Russian star Grigorij Laguta arrived late from having taken part in the SEC final in Gorican the night before. Currently in 4th place overall in the SEC, Laguta had had problems with his transport back from Croatia, and did not arrive in Tarnow until heat 4. In the end Laguta was rescued by team mate Arthur Czaja who lent him equipment, as Laguta had arrived with no more than a helmet and a kevlar race suit. Laguta rode fast and again fought with his rivals from the previous evening. Fast also was Maciej Janowski who is currently in 8th place in the SEC standings, equal with Dane Hans Andersen.
Another SEC rider, Martin Vaculik, had a night to forget. Although he won his first race, he came last in his subsequent races.
Tarnow emerged victorious by beating Czestochowa 49 to 41, and are close to claiming bronze medals in the Enea Ekstraliga.
On Tuesday and Wednesday the action turned to Sweden for Martin Vaculik, who is chasing Tomasz Gollob for third place in the SEC. The Slovak represents the colours of Vetlanda in their battle at Motala against the Pirates. In the end it was a convincing win for the home team, and Piraterna are Swedish Champions. Vaculik scored 9 points for the visitors, but had to settle for a silver medal in Sweden. He is however still very much in the fight for a medal in the SEC, where he is currently in 4th place.
Saturday night Stockholm’s magnificent Friends Arena played host to the 11th round in the fight for the World Championship. After the withdrawal of injured Russian star, SEC rider Emil Sayfutdinov, the title will almost certainly go to Tai Woffinden, who is also in the hunt for victory in the European Championship. If the Brit can beat Nicki Pedersen in Rzeszow he will be the first rider in history to hold both the World and the European titles. However, in the second race Woffinden tangled with Tomasz Gollob and both crashed heavily. Gollob was immediately taken to hospital with a suspected spinal injury. At this point we now know that the Pole will finish the season on the side-lines and will not race competitively again this season. This of course opens the door for Martin Vaculik, who is now in strong contention for SEC medals.
For Vaculik however, it was not plain sailing in Sweden either. In his second race he crashed heavily whilst leading, and sustained concussion. He then had to withdraw on medical advice. The instigator of the Gollob crash, Tai Woffinden, was complaining of wrist and shoulder pain, and it was later discovered that he had in fact re-fractured his collarbone. This did not stop him from finishing the meeting, and he was able to collect a valuable 7 points in spite being excluded from the incident with Gollob.
Then on Sunday the final installment in the Polish Enea Ekstraliga was to be staged at Zielona Gora. However understrength Unibax Torun withdrew their riders after being unable to reach agreement with the host club in a bid to postpone the meeting. And so, the gold medals by default went to Stelmet Falubaz Zielona Gora.
In the meeting for bronze medals at Czestochowa the same afternoon, Martin Vaculik scored 3 points for Unia Tarnow which proved to be a valuable contribution in their fight to beat the Lions over the two legs. Ultimately Czestochowa were not able to make home advantage count, and Tarnow took the bronze medals by just 2 points. For the home team, SEC rider Grigorij Laguta scored 12 points in his 6 races.
